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Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Alexander at four months

Alexander had his four-month well baby check today, so I know exactly how big he is: 25 inches tall and is 13 lbs. 11 ounces. That's double his birth weight! No wonder he seems huge.

At four months, Alexander is getting to be rather social. He smiles and giggles and coos both when he's given attention and when he wants attention. He initiates play by making eye contact with someone and then cocking his head to one side (repeatedly until they copy him) and grinning. It's super adorable.

I don't think I ever talked about his hairy ears before, but Alexander's got them. They aren't quite as hairy as Rachel's were, but he probably gets second place in the ear hair department. They're still pretty hairy. Sadly, the rest of his lanugo has fallen off, which means he's not a newborn anymore (but I guess I already knew that). At least we get to enjoy his smooth baby skin now.

Speaking of smooth baby skin, he has a lovely bald patch on the back of his head from wiggling around on his back all the time. I can't get him to stay on his tummy; he's always flipping right onto his back...except when he doesn't. Sometimes he just pivots around on his tummy, trying so hard to be mobile. He's also trying very hard to roll over from his back to his front, which he's only succeeded in doing a time or two. He can roll onto his side quite easily but tends to get stuck there.

On the laryngomalacia home front, Alexander's breathing is much improved. He's sounding less and less like he's a transfigured goose and more like he just happened to swallow a harmonica.

His breathing is still bad enough that people comment on it. Even our nurse today was tricked. She was just checking us in and taking Alexander's vitals and mentioned that "someone sounds a little congested today."

"He's fine," I told her. "He's just got laryngomalacia."

Having just removed a recently-drenched sweater, I can report that his reflux is not greatly improved. He still spits up a lot. But I think the ranitidine has made him more comfortable (and has perhaps lessened the inflammation in his throat, helping his breathing improve), but we're going to try taking him off it once he starts sitting up more and more. That's typically when reflux begins improving.

Today is Karen's birthday, which got me thinking about dates. The fourteenth crops up a lot as a special day in our family. Every other month (except for August), something special happens on the fourteenth.

Nothing special happens in August, so someone's going to have to fill in the blank there for us. Because even though Benjamin asked me this morning if I would "kiss Daddy again so that [he] can have another baby brother,"* a sixth child is currently not under consideration. And even if one was, it would not be planned for August because who wants to have a baby in August?!

Huh. Maybe that's why nothing happens in August...

(Though I guess I shouldn't say "nothing" because Uncle Morgan and Uncle Allen both are August birthdays (their poor mothers)).

* We should perhaps clear up his notion of where babies come from, especially since he's been running around kissing all the girls in his class (today he told me that he kissed Sofia). "STOP KISSING YOUR FRIENDS," I told him. But this child has a mind of his own.